P.E.I. athletes shine
Islanders win multiple events at Atlantic championships
Several P.E.I. athletes won multiple events at the recent 2017 Atlantic badminton championships.
Karla McCallum captured gold in under-15 girls singles, doubles with partner Martha Jewkes (N.S.) and mixed doubles with Sam Yuan, who won under-15 boys singles.
Jack Ronahan and David Pan claimed under-19 men’s doubles. Ronahan and Ruiwen Zhu captured under-19 mixed doubles.
Daniel Breau won Open B men’s singles.
Patrick Thompson, formerly from Summerside, won Open A men’s singles, and teamed with Shirley Thomson to win mixed doubles.
McCallum dominated 17-player field in under-15 girls singles as the most points scored against her in four matches was 14. McCallum defeated Anna Gillies 21-10, 21-11 in the final.
In under-15 girls doubles, McCallum/Jewkes topped Lily Reid/Serena Wu (N.S.) in the semifinals 21-11, 7-21, 21-12, and then defeated Sophie Dallon/Ananya Toal (N.B.) 21-9, 21-11.
In under-15 mixed, McCallum and Sam Yuan won their opening two matches comfortably, but were taken to the limits by Trevor Hayne/Sydney Arsenault (N.S./N.B.), before winning the final 19-21, 21-18, 21-19.
In under-15 boys singles, Yuan swept three matches in straight sets to reach the final, where he defeated Hayne 21-14, 21-11.
Alex Zheng had a strong showing with two wins, before losing to Hayne in the semifinal 21-14, 22-20. Zheng captured third in a playoff.
In under-15 doubles, Thomas Ashton/Hayne (N.S.) defeated Yuan/Zheng 21-8, 21-18 to take gold.
Under-19
In under-19 men’s singles, David Pan had a very strong showing, coming out on top in close matches against New Brunswick’s Jonathan Lepage and Joseph Thibodeau, before Martin Fang (N.S.) beat him in the final –18-21, 21-13, 21-15.
Pan teamed with Jack Ronahan to give the Island team the under-19 men’s doubles championship, beating Drake Lyons/Hielke Moore (N.B.) 2117, 15-21, 21-18.
In under-19 women’s singles, Ruiwen Zhu took second place in the three-person round robin, with her victory over Aby Pelletier (N.B.) 21-12, 2113. Gold-medallist Janay Beals (N.S.) defeated Zhu 23-21, 25-23.
In under-19 mixed doubles, Ronahan/Zhu won all four matches in the five-team round robin to earn top honors.
Men
In A men’s singles, Thompson played three close matches
to get to the final, where he defeated Miklos Kanyasi (N.S.) 2117, 26-24.
In A men’s doubles, Thompson and Kevin Yan won their first three matches, then defeated Justin Barkhouse/Steve Pothier (P.E.I./N.S.) 21-13, 21-17 in the semifinals. Spencer Armsworthy/Elliott Beals (N.S.) won the final 21-18, 21-15.
Thompson/Thomson (N.S.)
beat Miklos Kanaysi/Emma Hughes (N.S./P.E.I.) 21-15, 1821, 21-17 in the A mixed semifinals, and defeated Brandon Howland/Sarah Newman (N.B./ N.S.) 21-6, 21-11.
Greg McGuire, formerly of Summerside, reached the quarter-finals in singles and doubles, then teamed with Carrie McCavour (N.S.) to make it to the semifinals in mixed play.
Daniel Breau captured top honors in the 15-player men’s B singles, winning three matches, including two that took three games, to reach the final. He beat Brent Gosselin (N.B.) 2115, 21-8 to win gold.
Breau and Leon Fu advanced to the B doubles final, but they lost to Sriram Krishnamoorthy/ Lakshmanan Pandian (N.S.) 2114, 21-12.